London Underground members of transport union TSSA have voted four to one ” 81.2% ”Yes” ” in favour of strikes regarding a raft of issues.
Around 1,500 key station supervisors ” a 49% turnout of members - voted in the dispute concerning the closure of around 40 ticket offices and the use of agency and security staff.
”The size of the vote clearly demonstrates what our members feel about what they perceive as an attack on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work,” said TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty.
Despite talks breaking down on these issues last week, a union spokesman told ABTN he was optimistic a satisfactory resolution would still prevent action this time.
”Discussions restarted yesterday (11 March) and are continuing. It”s a complicated mix of various matters so talks could easily go on until tomorrow, but it means progress is being made.
”Some issues ” such as the closures ” they won”t be able to agree to in the talks, they”ll have to agree just to a consultation with us, so they can present evidence as to why they are doing this and then we can put forward a counter argument.
”If they do break down again, we”ve got to take action within the next 28 days though, so we would press the button on industrial action in the next month.”
London Underground Ltd (LUL) has taken over the Silverlink line from Euston to Watford ” now known as London Overground ” and the union is concerned there is a safety issue as less highly trained agency and private security staff are currently being used there, as well as ”mobile” supervisors looking after various stations instead of a dedicated one for each.
”Experienced station supervisors are the cornerstone of Tube safety because their key role is to oversee safe operations and cope with emergencies,” said TSSA senior regional organiser John Page. ”Expecting one individual to supervise several stations at once is impossible.”
The RMT union is also to ”imminently” ballot its own members on the situation. Following the breakdown of the last round of talks the union”s general secretary Bob Crow said: ”When LUL took guards away they said there was no need to worry because there would be enough staff to keep things safe, but the concept of mobile supervisors drives a coach and horses through the safety regime and passengers should be worried.”
However, a spokesperson for Transport for London told ABTN: ”These issues have nothing whatsoever to do with safety, and not a single job is at risk. All of the issues raised by the RMT and TSSA can and should be addressed through the normal negotiating process.
”That process has not broken down and it would be totally unreasonable to curtail it by threats of strike action, which can only lose staff pay and inconvenience the public to no purpose whatsoever.”